This study of Matthew 12 examines people who were offended by Jesus and warn us not to take offence at Him ourselves.

Transcript

 

This morning, we're continuing a series of lessons from the book of Matthew and picking up in Matthew chapter 12.

Let's think about this topic: "Don't be Offended by Jesus!" Now, that may seem strange because we think about Jesus as someone that would be very hard to be offended by. We think him as someone who is perfectly good and gentle, which is certainly true. Someone who was always doing , amazingly good things to other people in His life.

And yet it is also the case, as we read the gospels, we find that there are many people who were offended by Jesus. And we actually, if we think about it, we realize that there are people in our day and time that are offended by Jesus as well. Sometimes for the same reasons that people were offended by Jesus in the gospels.

So I guess we're familiar with the idea of people in our day and time being offended by Jesus in various ways. What Jesus said of His own day is-- He said to His brothers-- "the world can't hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil." And so people are offended by Jesus for the same reason today.
But actually something more concerning is that sometimes even disciples of Jesus can be offended by Jesus and the things He does and says or the way that He runs the universe. And so we want to avoid being offended by Jesus regardless of the reason why.

In chapter 11, in our previous study in the book of Matthew, we found that it was actually John the Baptist who was in danger of being offended by Jesus because there were some important ways in which Jesus was not meeting his expectations for who the Messiah would be. And in discussing that issue with John's disciples, Jesus made this statement, "Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."
And now here in chapter 12 we see some Pharisees as people who are being offended by Jesus. And if it's a blessing to not be offended, it's a curse or a woe to be offended by Jesus.

The Pharisees are Offended by Jesus

In our text this morning, we find that the Pharisees are offended by Jesus because he is violating their Sabbath traditions. Read with me, John 12:1. "At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and His disciples were hungry and began to pluck the heads of grain to eat. "

"And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, 'Look, Your disciples are doing what's not lawful to do on the Sabbath."

But when we turn to the Old Testament, we find some explicit provisions in the Old Testament for the type of activity that is described here. In Leviticus 19:9, the Israelites were commanded to leave the edges of their crops unharvested so the poor and hungry could glean from them.

It says there, "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard. Nor shall you gather every grape from your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God."

And there's a similar provision in Deuteronomy 23 in the Old Law, allowing anyone to eat from his neighbor's crops even without asking permission, but only enough to satisfy hunger.

And so we read in Deuteronomy 23:24, "When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any into your container. When you come into your neighbor's standing grain,
you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain."

You see what's being said here. As you're passing through your neighbor's land, if you're hungry and there's something edible to eat, the Law of Moses says you're allowed to take what you need to satisfy your hunger, but you're not supposed to bring a basket and harvest his field and take it back to your pantry.

But when you see these commands in the Law that would-- this would be stealing in many cultures-- but not in Jewish culture. And that's because God's laws built society with presumptions of mercy and hospitality.

The overarching command to love your neighbor as yourself would imply if your neighbor is hungry and some of your grain or your grapes would satisfy his hunger, you should be willing to share for his need.

And that was the type of society that God built for the Jewish people. In fact, the Sabbath law itself was a divine provision of mercy requiring rest each week for every man, woman, servant, and animal. And we can read about that in Exodus 20:8, where God said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall do no work, neither you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger, who is within your gates."

And so really it was a gross injustice for these Pharisees to suggest that making use of the law's provision for mercy and hospitality on God's day of mercy and rest was a violation of the Sabbath.

And Jesus gave two examples to them to show their inconsistency. And so let's pick up our reading there in Matthew 12:3. Jesus said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who are with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who are with him, but only for the priests?"

This account is given in the book of First Samuel in the Old Testament. And the Jewish people didn't condemn David for presuming that the show bread that had been removed from the tabernacle and was normally reserved for the priests could be given to the hungry in case of need.

And the other example He gives is in verse five, He says, "or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple, profane the Sabbath and are blameless?"

There were daily labors in the temple that were required to be done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every day of the week. And the priests didn't take the Sabbath day off to rest from those laborers. Are they breaking the Sabbath to offer the evening and morning sacrifice on the Sabbath day? No. They certainly are not.

And the Pharisees aren't faulting the priests for carrying out what you would have to imagine is very toilsome labor of offering sacrifices in worship, even on the Sabbath day.

The sad thing was how much strife and controversy the Jewish rabbis had, or had come to over the centuries as they discussed how exactly to keep the Sabbath. Their Talmud, which was the records of the teachings of the rabbis, includes a section 500 pages long that is just the discussion and all the back and forth controversy of this rabbi said this, but this rabbi said that of how to keep the Sabbath properly in every situation that would arise in life.

Now, God's instructions fit on a few verses; we saw there in Exodus chapter 20. But 500 pages is what it took the rabbis to discuss and still really weren't able to settle every question that arose. And that was because they were having a hard time realizing what the true principles underlying the Sabbath were.

And lucky for them there was Someone there on that day who could answer all the questions that they might have about how to keep the Sabbath and end all of that religious controversy down through the centuries between this rabbi arguing with this rabbi, because Jesus as the Divine Son of God: that Sabbath was His law.
And this is what Jesus said. "Yet I say to you that in this place, there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless for the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath."

So Jesus was there. He was actually greater than the temple, He was the Divine Son of God. If they would just ask an honest question instead of accusing Him and His disciples of being lawbreakers, then He could have answered any question they had about how to keep the Sabbath or any other part of the law. So what a waste! What a missed opportunity! Rather than seeking knowledge and wisdom and unity and to get their questions answered, instead they called Jesus who was actually the Lord of the Sabbath, a Sabbath breaker.

But it actually gets even worse as we continue reading in this chapter, verse nine.

Now, when He had Departed from there, He went into their synagogue, and behold there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him saying, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?' That they might accuse him."

So there's a man with a disability there. One of his hands is withered. That's certainly going to be a very sad situation for him, constraining on his ability to earn a living and provide for his own household. But the Jewish leaders have decided that it would be unlawful for Jesus to do a divine miracle on the Sabbath.

And maybe their reasoning is something like this. Jesus is a miracle worker. A miracle worker, his customary labor is performing divine miracles. And so on the day of rest, he should cease his customary labor because it's the Sabbath. Does that make sense? Maybe a tiny bit.

But then Jesus' response totally destroys that argument. This is what he had to say in verse 11. "He said to them, what man is there among you who if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." So He tells these people, every one of you would rescue an animal who is in danger no matter how much physical effort it took on the Sabbath day, because rescuing even an animal is a good thing to do. Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. A miracle of healing is obviously a good work and therefore lawful.
And if there was any question as to whether that was the right judgment, then Jesus proved that His argument had the approval of heaven by healing the disabled man's withered hand.

Verse 13: " He said to the man, stretch out your hand, and he stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the other."

It's really tragic that instead of accepting Jesus' argument on its merits or accepting its truth on the testimony of this sign from heaven, instead the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might destroy Jesus. They were truly offended by him. Their hearts were hard and their eyes were blind. Verse 14 tells us, "then the Jews went out and plotted against them how they might destroy Him What a sad situation!

That did not stop Jesus, although He did not force the issue with this particular group of Pharisees. He left His words and deeds to speak for themself in that community and went to heal and teach elsewhere. Verse 15 tells us, " when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there and great multitudes followed Him and He healed them all."

This is what he had instructed his apostles to do as they went preaching and teaching in Matthew 10,:23, He told them, "when they persecute you in one city, go to another." His objective and mission at that period of time was to make the gospel known throughout all the cities of Israel. And there would come a time when he would press the issue when His hour had come, but even then it would not be with violence or an outcry.

In fact, this was in fulfillment of prophecy as Matthew reminds us next. Verse 16: "Yet He warned them not to make Him known that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying, 'Behold, My servant, whom I have chosen. My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased, I will put My Spirit upon Him and He will declare justice to the gentiles.

Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench till He sends forth justice to victory. And in His name, Gentiles will trust.'"

This prophecy about the Messiah really helps us to fix the misunderstanding of what type of Messiah that they were expecting.

The type of Messiah they were expecting to be was a victorious conquering ruler who would tread down the enemies of the Jewish people. He would cry out in the streets, muster an enormous army-- that was what their expectation was. And if anyone stood in the way of His mighty mission of delivering God's people from the wicked nations around them they would be broken and tread down in His wrath and fury.

And yet this is also a prophecy of the Messiah. And what does it say about Him? Is He a type of person that throws his weight around and shatters everything? Is He one that's treading down the nations around Israel? Actually, it says that He will declare justice to the Gentiles, and in His name Gentiles will trust.

And when it comes to how violent of a person He was, this description is: "a bruised reed. He will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench." Now let's think about that expression for a moment, to get a better picture of what that means.

A reed, that's a plant growing by the side of the road or maybe in a ditch or by side of a stream. In Bible times just about everything was some kind of resource to accomplish the things that you needed to do. And a reed was very useful because it was stiff as well as potentially flexible. One of the things that you'd use a reed for is you'd cut a reed, and when you're walking behind an animal, you would use the reed to prod it along to make sure it went in the direction you wanted it to go, and didn't just be stubborn and stop instead of going where you wanted it to go.

But what happens if your reed gets bent or bruised? It's no longer stiff anymore. What do you do with that? If your reed gets bruised and bent, you throw it away and cut another reed so that you've got something that can do the job that a reed needs to do.

And what about flax? That's another part of a plant. But it would actually be used in their time as a wick for their oil lamps. And the fibers of the flax plant would be stretched out and dipped in the oil. And the top would be lit. The fibers of the flax would sap up the oil to the top of the wick. That's where the burning was taking place. And if the flax was drawing well, enough oil would get to the top to give a bright light that you could use to read by or to do your calculations that you needed to do even though it was at night. But if the wick got dried out then the flame would start to burn the wick instead of the oil, because not enough oil was getting there to burn clear. And so your wick, instead of creating pure light, it would start smoking and putting smoke into your house, which is the exact opposite of something that was going to help you to accomplish work at night. So if that happened, what would you do? You would quench that wick as quickly as possible so less smoke would end up in your house and you would throw it out, make another wick from some fresh flax, and light your lamp.

Okay. What does that have to do with the Messiah? The things that people would normally think were of such low value and such a cheap commodity that if anything happened to them, to make them less useful, that they would be reasonable just throw them away and replace them; the Messiah was going to be different than that.

Now, it's not reeds and flax that the Messiah is interested in, it's human hearts. And there's a lot of human beings in the world and a lot of them are damaged goods, aren't they? They're like a bruised reed as far as accomplishing God's purposes in their life or a smoking flax.

But does Jesus come along and say, "Okay, all of you people that aren't measuring up, We're gonna just throw you to the side?" It's the exact opposite! He's the One that comes along and binds up the bruised reed and fans into flame the smoking flax, so that even the most broken of people can be made useful in God's service again.
That is what He would've liked to do, even to these religious leaders that were so offended by them that they were plotting to kill Him. If He could Have, he would've tried to bind them up and make them useful in God's service again. But they would not let Him. The point of the prophecy for us is to-- since God views us as that valuable and that indispensable-- we need to let Him have His way with us to fix what is broken with us, to make us useful in His service again.

And so that's a confusing part of scripture, but it presents a really beautiful picture of God's view --how valuable He considers every human soul.

So Jesus came to present that beautiful picture-- that God doesn't want to leave any human being behind. He's not willing that any should perish, not even the nations around Israel. All of them were going to be able to come and trust in His name as well.

Sad to say, these Pharisees that were offended by His disciples doing something that they thought broke the Sabbath, they wouldn't listen even to the Lord of the Sabbath when He tried to convince Him it was okay.

These Pharisees that were so offended that on the Sabbath day He would do something so horrifying as taking a man who had a disability and completely and miraculously healing him, these Pharisees had another problem.

The Pharisees Call Jesus’ Miracles Demonic

They end up actually calling Jesus miracles, demonic. That may be hard to believe, but let's keep reading. In verse 22: "Then they brought one to Him who was demon possessed, blind and mute, and He healed him so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, 'Could this be the Son of David?'"

What an amazing miracle! This man is possessed by a demon, a horrifying situation to contemplate. And again, here's another example of Jesus taking the bruised reed and healing it. Some of the people are saying, "This must be the Son of David." This must be the Messiah, really is what they are saying.

But the Pharisees, they know that can't be! If He was really the Messiah, He would keep the Sabbath the way they would expect Him to. And in their attempts to prevent the people around them from believing in Jesus, what do they say? "This fellow does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons."
They're saying that Jesus, yes, he did this amazing miracle of this demon possess man in this hopeless and really traumatic spiritual condition. Jesus has commanded this demon to leave this man, and the demon has left. Surely this is a miracle from heaven. No, according to the Pharisees, this is the ruler of hell reorganizing the demonic troops!

And this proves that Jesus is actually the ruler of the demons! What an amazing conclusion!

This is actually the second time that Jesus enemies have made the claim that His power to cast out demons was coming from Satan or the ruler of the demons back in Matthew chapter nine.

At that point, Jesus left that charge be made without directly addressing it, but here Jesus directly refutes it with reasoning. And Jesus declares that their charge against Him makes no sense. Because if Satan was casting out Satan, he was fighting his own kingdom.

Verse 25: "Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan cast out Satan, how will his kingdom stand?"

Such division and civil war would destroy a kingdom from within. Now, the destruction of Satan's kingdom would be a good thing, but Satan is not going to do that himself. So that's the first argument that Jesus makes against their charge: it doesn't make any sense at all.

Verse 27: "and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges."

So Jesus also notes that some of the Jews had cast out demons. Had they also used the power of Satan to do that? Did the Pharisees charge those of their own who cast out demons as being agents of Satan?

No. There had to be some other explanation. Verse 28, Jesus says, "But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, surely the kingdom of heaven has come upon you."
It was an impossibility that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of demons, and so the only other possibility was that Jesus was casting them out with the power of God.

Since that was true, that meant that Jesus' message had to be true as well. That meant that the kingdom of heaven that He was announcing was in fact at hand.
He goes on to say in verse 29, "How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house."

This kingdom of God that Jesus was announcing was in opposition to Satan's kingdom. For the spiritual war against Satan to be won, someone stronger than Satan had to bind Satan and take what had formerly belonged to Satan away from him. No human power could do that. But Jesus, by casting out the demons demonstrating that supernatural power during his earthly ministry, demonstrated that He was the Hero of the kingdom of heaven, who would defeat Satan, bind Satan and plunder Satan and his demons.

And we can praise God that such a person entered into the world! They were witnesses to the greatest spiritual war in redemptive history. And as eyewitnesses of that conflict, they personally had to decide if they were going to align themselves with Jesus and the kingdom of heaven in His victory over the kingdom of Satan, or whether they were going to align themselves with the kingdom of Satan. There was no other option.

And so Jesus says in verse 30, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad."

Everyone there that day was witnessing the hero of the kingdom of Heaven as he wielded the power of the Holy Spirit to cast out the servants of Satan. But some of those present saw that and tried to convince people that he was wielding the power of hell instead of the power of heaven! They were promoting a damnable lie, which, if believed, would cause people to treat the Son of God as if He were a minion of Satan. And they did this by claiming the power of the Holy Spirit was actually the power of Beelzebub.

This was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And Jesus warned them that every other sin could be forgiven, but not that one.

In verse 31, he says, "Therefore I say to you, every sin in blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come."
They could avoid that irrevocable error, and those who heard their accusations could avoid being fooled simply by deciding if casting out demons was a good thing or a bad thing. If it was a good thing, then the One who did it was a good tree bearing good fruit, and that was how they could determine if Jesus was bad or good.

Verse 33: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For a tree is known by its fruit."

They did need to decide whether Jesus was from heaven or not. And the fruits that He was bearing, these divine miracles, which were demonstrating that He had power even greater than the greatest human, however good he might have been, to command demons to leave the demon possessed is a demonstration that He truly was doing what was the will of Heaven.

But just like they could determine whether Jesus was good or bad by Jesus' fruit, they could also determine if the Pharisees were good or bad. Is it good or bad to accuse a miracle worker of being allied with the devil? What kind of heart could make such an accusation? And from a heart that bad, what good could possibly be expected?

And so Jesus says in verse 34: "Brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."

And then Jesus urges all mankind to judge our own hearts by what we say, knowing that we must give an account for everything we say in the Judgment Day.

He says in verse 35, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words, you will be justified, and by your words, you'll be condemned."

We see that the Pharisees were offended by what they claimed was Jesus breaking the Sabbath. We see the Pharisees then claiming that Jesus miracles were actually demonic power. And in the next section of this chapter we see the Pharisees making impossible demands of Jesus.

The Pharisees Demand a Sign

Verse 38: "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, 'Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.'"

Now, when we read that, we're probably saying to ourself, What?! Didn't He just heal that withered man in their synagogue? And didn't He just cast out the demon from that man and restored his sight and his speech at the same time. That looks like a sign to me.

And so it is truly strange that they would make such a demand after what they had just seen. But Jesus' opponents were not satisfied by that particular sign because they could think of a way to discount that miracle by attributing Jesus miraculous powers to Satan. And so basically they're saying, okay, you claim that's not Satanic power.

But if you're going to prove that to us, you've got to give us some kind of miracle that is unimpeachable, that it's impossible to cast, aspersions on. They wanted a sign that was so undeniable that not even they could deny its heavenly origin.
Unfortunately, due to the already demonstrated stubbornness of their own hearts, they were asking for an impossibility. Just think about that! Jesus could literally do anything. He had heaven's power, omnipotence at His command. And yet there was one thing He could not do. He could not perform a miracle that was so convincing that a human, stubborn heart that had no will to accept the will of heaven could not deny it.

And that was true in Jesus' day, and it's true today. The human stubborn heart will find a way to say no and deny anything that Jesus or God attempts to do if they are determined to do so, and that seemed to be the case here.

Their unreasonable demands that Jesus prove who He was instead, I ended up proving who they were.

And Jesus identifies the problem in verse 39: "He answered and said to them, 'An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet. Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and nights in the heart of the earth.'

'The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented that the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.'

'The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.'

And they were an evil, an adulterous generation. They were guilty of spiritual unfaithfulness to the God whom they claimed to worship and honor. And the proof of that was the rejection of the One whom God had sent.

The sign which they sought would be provided, but it would prove two things.
First, referring to Jesus dying, being in the tomb for three days and then raising on the third day. It would prove beyond all doubt that Jesus was the Son of God,
But at the same time, it would prove the irredeemable spiritual hardness of the bulk of the nation that will reject their own God-given Messiah.

Instead of providing a sign on demand for His detractors, Jesus provided an additional warning to all from the sign that He had just performed with regard to the man who had an unclean spirit.

Matthew 12:43: "When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then he says, 'I'll return to my house from which I came.'

And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. So it shall also be with this wicked generation."

Having a demon cast out was a lot like a person turning away from sin at the warning of a prophet like John the Baptist or of Jesus. It definitely was a great improvement over the previous condition, but casting out a demon and the preaching of the gospel was not only meant to remove what was unclean, defiling, and sinful, it was meant to make room for the kingdom of heaven to enter in the form of spiritual fellowship with the Heavenly Father and His Son.

If the void left by the departing demon or the void left by sins repented of was not filled up with God, worse demons or worse sin would take up residence, putting a person in a worse spiritual condition than ever. Jesus does not just want us to kick Satan out of our lives, He wants us to invite Him in. And that was what He was pleading for the people of His generation at that time and for us today as well.
Jesus presence in the nation of Israel had led to widespread repentance upon many of the people. And yet the overall outcome of that generation was rejecting of the Messiah and there was a great judgment coming on them for that.

Jesus' Spiritual Family

As we continue reading verse 46, we find: "While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold His mother and brothers stood outside seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, 'Look, Your mother and brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with You.'"

We aren't told if Jesus fulfilled their request, but He did use the opportunity to make the point that His spiritual family was even more important than the physical in verse 48: "But He answered and said to the one who had told Him, 'Who is My mother and who are My brothers?' And He stretched out His hand toward his disciples and said, 'Here are My mother and brothers, for whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.'"

Jesus considered those who do the will of the Heavenly Father to be His own family. That is the spiritual fellowship that He offers us in the place of uncleanness and defilement. What a blessing that offer is!

Final Observations and Applications

So let's look at some final observations and applications from what we've read here in Matthew chapter 12. Our overall admonition is, "Don't be Offended by Jesus!"
And there are several things that we might be offended by Jesus about, but one of the main reasons that people throughout history have been offended by Jesus is that He is constantly exposing what remains of sin and pride and selfishness in our lives and calling us to turn away from those things.

And we oftentimes would just prefer Jesus to leave us alone. Even when we've been a Christian for many years, we find him coming along and saying, I noticed that there's still some sin and pride and selfishness going on here. Would you like Me to do Something about it? And we might say, leave enough alone!

Actually many people, their first response to Jesus is to say, "Don't tell me what to do. I'm gonna live my life the way I want to. And don't you dare." And so they're offended from the first word.

But following Jesus is an extended exercise in finding out there is more spiritual work that needs to be done on our hearts and lives. And so I urge all, "Don't be offended by Jesus" as He seeks to show us what needs to change in our lives.
Another of the things that many are offended by Jesus about is that He claims the authority to rewrite our religious opinions and conclusions and preferences. And that was certainly the case for the Pharisees we read about in Matthew chapter 12.
He knew exactly what it took to keep the law of Moses with regard to the Sabbath day. But they had their own preconceived ideas and conclusions they had come to. And for Him to say they were wrong was just proof that He had to be wrong. And that's why they were offended at Him and why when he healed on the Sabbath day, they were left in the ridiculous position of saying, "Oh you can rescue your ox that falls in dish on the Sabbath day, but don't you dare perform a divine miracle of healing on the Sabbath day!"

That's a pretty ridiculous position to have to defend, but it was necessary because , if Jesus was right about this, what else was He right about? And so they were offended by Him.

And today we may find ourselves having some cherished conclusion that we've made from scripture or tradition that we followed and realizing, wait a second! If Jesus really is in control, if He truly is the head of the church and I have to submit to Him then I'm going to have to give up this or that; or realize that my previous understandings of what God's will was were wrong.

Many people are offended by that. And my exhortation to each of us is: don't be offended by Jesus for any reason.

Here's a serious reality that is demonstrated by the stories that we've read this morning. When we are offended by Jesus, there actually is a part of us that might rather reject Jesus as demonic than to give up our sin or our wrong religious opinions.

That's what the Pharisees actually ended up doing. They could not think of an alternate explanation as to why Jesus was able to cast out demons. And so they said maybe it's demonic power. And if we're offended by Jesus and his ways and his teachings we might be tempted to make some similar justification for not changing.

They didn't really care what the specific excuse was. They just needed justification to not change their opinion of Jesus and not change their religious opinions. And they were willing to call Jesus demonic in order to not change.

When we are offended by Jesus, there is a part of us that would rather demand the impossible from Jesus than submit to his authority.

There's things that we know that Jesus wants us to do or wants us to not do and we're not ready to make change in our lives. " Jesus, if You want me to do that, then You've got to do this for me." Putting some kind of demand on Him.

That's what the Pharisees did. If you want us to believe this, then you've gotta perform a sign that it's impossible for us to deny!

When we're taking offense at Jesus, the parts of us that are tempted to respond to Jesus in this way are the parts to which we need to say , you're not going to have your way.

That's the self saying, "I want to keep control." That's the self saying, "I don't want to change." What happens if we do change? What if we decide, "You know what? Jesus has proven that He is worthy of my loyalty, of my acceptance. And so whatever He wants, whatever change He wants in my life, I am going to be okay ."

If we can avoid taking offense at Jesus long enough for him to change us the way we need to change, then this is what we receive. We get free of our sin and it's guilt. We also get free of our religious errors and the need to protect and defend them, and we get to be part of a spiritual family that transcends physical and national bonds, which unites us with our Heavenly Father, which unites us with our Brother and Savior Jesus, and unites us with every member of His spiritual household.
What a blessing that is for those who can avoid being offended by Jesus!

And so we'll end then with Jesus' description of this spiritual family from the end of chapter 12. " He said, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' He stretched out His hand toward his disciples and said, 'Here are My mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."

Follow Jesus and become part of this beautiful spiritual family that is filled with heavenly blessings. Make that decision today, it's a difficult commitment.
There's things that Jesus says and does that offend. And when we spend time with brothers and sisters in Christ, sometimes they say and do things that offend. We have to work through all of that potential offense and get over our sin and pride and selfishness and our brothers and sisters sin and pride and selfishness.

But the one who is leading us is Jesus in whom there is no sin who truly is the highest and greatest. He is that Hero of the kingdom of heaven. And there is no selfishness in Him. And so He is truly worth following.